Reflection for the Corpus Christi Sunday (A)

Text: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." (John 6: 51)

Meditation: The Feast of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ reminds us of the price of redemption. He broke his body and shed his blood that we may have life! Thus when we eat his body and drink his blood we share his life.

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Reflection on our beginning...

I begin the series on Badaliyya to renew the spirit of the Badal for our time. We aim to encourage mutual respect, understanding and dialogue between and among Fr. Massignon's three Abrahamic traditions Judaism, Christianity and Islam. We hope that others will join us in spirit around the world. In the spirit of our friend and guide, Fr. Louis Massignon, we believe that any efforts at reconciliation and social action must begin in prayer.

We began by reflecting on the foundations of the Badaliyya in order to ground us in the spirit of its original intention. The Badaliyya began with a vow made by Louis Massignon and Mary Kahil in an ancient Franciscan church to dedicate themselves to the well-being of the Muslim community.

It is reassuring to realize that the Badaliyya began with only two. The initial responses to the idea of a vow led us to begin to realize the seriousness of our endeavor - Badaliyya on line. One person reminded us that all our vows are essentially a deepening of our baptismal promises. This is an invitation for us to struggle more intently with what we are called to become. We discussed the meaning of the Arabic word, badaliyya, substitution, and began some reflection on Massignon's understanding in light of his intense Christian faith. Substitution is a controversial and challenging call which we will continue to explore through the writings of Massignon and others in our prayers and contemplation.

In keeping with the original statutes of the Badaliyya we began our prayer for one another in silence. Then spent some time in silent reflection. If we have a small group of Badals we center our gathering on the theme of peace and each person is asked to bring a reading or something to share.

Our readings are taken from scripture passages, readings from the Qur'an, or an original poem written about Saint Francis. Our intercessory prayers included a plea for peaceful resolution to the crises in the Middle East and in communities of religious and ethnic conflicts and for conversion of hearts of all those whose hatred leads them to terrorist actions. We prayed for the courage to forgive them by offering ourselves in their place to be reconciled to a loving God. We close with the prayer of our Church, the Lord's Prayer.

Reflection for Trinity Sunday (A)

Text: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that
everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal
life.” (John 3: 16)

Meditation: We begin to understand the one Triune God though the
contemplation of God as LOVE. Fr. Cantalamessa in his homily for the
Feast states that in every love there are always three realities or
subjects: one who loves, one who is loved and the love that unites
them. Where God is understood as absolute power, there is no need for
there to be more than one person, for power can be exercised quite
well by one person; but if God is understood as absolute love, then it
cannot be this way. The life of the Trinity is a mystery of relation.
This means that the divine persons do not “have” relations, but rather
“are” relations.

Come Holy Spirit...

Come, Holy Spirit, come!
And from your celestial home
Shed a ray of light divine!

Come, Father of the poor!
Come, source of our store!
Come, within our bosoms shine.

You, of comforters the best;
You, the soul's most welcome guest;
Sweet refreshment here below;

In our labor, rest most sweet;
Grateful coolness in the heat;
Solace in the midst of woe.

O most blessed light divine,
Shine within these hearts of yours,
And our inmost being fill!

Where you are not, we have naught,
Nothing good in deed or thought,
Nothing free from taint of ill.

Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our drtness pour your dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away;

Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.

On the faithful, who adore
And confess you, evermore
In your sevenfold gift descend;

Give them virtue's sure reward;
Give them your salvation, Lord;
Give them joys that never end. Amen
(Sequence of the Feast)

Dhikr for Pentecost Sunday

Text: (Jesus) said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained." (John 20: 21-23)

Meditation: Jesus breathed on all of us the Holy Spirit… The marks of the Spirit in us and in our community are peace and the forgiveness of sins. Yes, each one and each community born of the Spirit are empowered to forgive sins…

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.
2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...
3rd step: Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

HEART/QALB

What is at the center of Interreligious Relations? My long years living in the Muslim communities have taught me that the real key or the path to any kind of true relationship with a Muslim neighbor is through the heart.
The HEART, in fact, is not only the key or path to each other… but it is also the way we encounter God.

The Spanish Mystic ‘Ibn ‘Arabi gave us this legacy…

• God is extraordinarily closes and proximate to the human heart (e.g., at S 8:24, "He passes between the man and his heart"). What truly matters is God’s uniquely all-encompassing divine knowledge of "what is in their hearts" (S 4:66, 33:51, etc.).

• The divine awareness of what is in the heart extends in particular to people's innermost intentions (especially in contrast to their words and ostensible actions). In consequence, ‘Ibn “Arabi speaks of the heart (as more commonly of the soul, al-nafs) as the enduring "self" or ongoing seat of our moral and spiritual responsibility, as at S 2:225: "...He will call you to account for what your hearts have earned...."

• The most obvious in his work is the consistent stress on the divine "responsibility", indeed the ongoing divine Activity, expressed in all the different states of our hearts, including especially our recurrent failures to "remember" God.

• The enlightened or divinely supported heart (whether in this world or the next) is said to be the locus of true Remembrance of God (dhikr Allâh, at S13:28).

• We also see God's sealing, veiling, hardening, locking, binding, closing, or frightening hearts - to hearts that as a result (of their own misdeeds or the divine reaction) are "sick" or "blind" and "suffering."

• There are also references to hearts that "fail to understand" (lâ yafqahûn), far more frequently than those who do perceive the divine "Signs," whose hearts are 'âqilûn.

• Thus there is the need to move from these "negative" or perverse states of the human heart to full awareness of God and the corresponding divine Peace and understanding - "softening" and "humbling" or "purification" and "strengthening" of hearts, to the necessity of a "sound" or "repentant" or "mindful" heart (qalb salîm or munîb).

Dhikr for Ascension Sunday

Gospel Reading: "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age." (Mark 28: 18b-20)

Meditation: Jesus’ mandate is make disciples of all nations… And have no fear, because He assured us of his presence in us until the age of time.


DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.
2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...
3rd step: Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

Dhikr for the 6th Sunday of Easter (A)

Text: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you.” (John 14: 16-17)


Meditation: Jesus does not leave as orphans.. He sends the Spirit, our Advocate, to be with us always...

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.
2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...
3rd step: Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

Dhikr for the 5th Sunday of Easter (A)

Text: Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him." (John 14: 6-7)

Meditation: Jesus is our way, truth and life… Do we truly believe it and live by this belief?

Jesus is the gate to LIFE. In, through and with Him – we find life.

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.
2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...
3rd step: Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

Dhikr for the 4th Sunday of Easter (A)

Text: “I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.” (John 10: 9)

Meditation: Jesus is the gate to LIFE. In, through and with Him – we find life.

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.
2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...
3rd step: Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

Reflection for the 3rd Sunday of Easter (A)

Dhikr for the 3rd Sunday of Easter (A): “Break Bread with the needy…”

Text: But they urged him, "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over." So he went in to stay with them. (Luke 24: 29)

Meditation: The key to the understanding of the Eucharist is the actual breaking of one’s bread with stranger. The two disciples shared their abode and table with the stranger. This is the challenge to us all – a real lived Eucharist!

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.
2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...
3rd step: Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.